An attempt in progress to compile the most universal movies of all time, the creamiest of the crop, the most rewarding and eternal.
Sharing your assent or dissent, as well as any pertinent info, will be greatly appreciated and cited. The goal is not to make you admire this list. It's to get more people making this kind of list for themselves.

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1949: 1 movie

(Last updated 11 May 2014)

The Set-Up

Directed by Robert Wise
Written by Art Cohn
Produced by Richard Goldstone
Cinematography by Milton R. Krasner
Editing by Roland Gross
Art Direction by Albert S. D'Agostino and Jack Okey
Fight sequences by John Indrisano
Starring Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter

This movie is so depressing it can make you sick! It's also so inspiring and brilliant that it exemplifies great cinema and its profound ability to champion the best in humanity. Stoker Thompson, played by Robert Ryan, is an over-the-hill boxer on whom everyone has given up, and yet he still hasn't thrown in the towel. In essence, it's about the loneliness of the true hero, and it's captured brilliantly through its real-time structure. We feel the building suspense during the lead-up to the fight, then we are treated to what is possibly the best boxing match in a feature film, and lastly we bear witness to the gruesome cost of sticking to one's guns. But it's the mind-blowing editing, and the fantastic set that really makes the thing crackle! The weary, jaded actors are miserable fun and so is the precise direction. Ryan, in particular, is so good, his acting is like a poem. In fact, the movie was based on a poem.